INTRODUCING MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

INTRODUCING MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

To appreciate how views of management and its research have evolved over time.

To understand what is distinctive about management research.

To gain insights into the personal and situational factors that affect success in doing research.

To appreciate different modes of management and business research and how they link to different levels of study.

Introduction The Nature of Management and Business Research What Is Management? Skills and Resources for Management and Business Research Levels and Outcomes of Management Research Is Management Research Distinctive? Conclusion Further Reading

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INTRODUCTION

This book provides comprehensive coverage of research methods in management and business research. It is written for people who have to conduct projects and research studies as part of educational qualifications, which can range from undergraduate to doctoral levels. It is also intended for consultants and others who need to conduct research as part of their normal work. The book covers both the practical techniques for conducting research, and the philosophies and assumptions underlying these techniques. This introductory chapter starts with some reflections on the nature of business and management research, we then provide guidance on the skills and resources required to conduct good research, and we finish with an outline of the content and presentation of the book as a whole.

THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

We cover methods relevant to both management and business research because there is a great deal in common between the two areas. Indeed the differences are relatively small and cover things such as style, setting and emphasis. Thus management research may concentrate on the nature and consequences of managerial actions, often taking a critical edge, and covers any kind of organization, both public and private. On the other hand business research is more likely to focus on determinants of corporate performance, with an emphasis on private sector organizations. Given these differences we use the two terms interchangeably in the book, but on occasions where there is a significant difference we explain the implications.

There are three features of management and business research that have influenced the structure and content of this book. The first is a long-standing tension between the use of qualitative and quantitative methods in conducting research, and the fashion has swung back and forth over the last few decades between the two. When our first edition was published in 1991, quantitative methods were in the ascendancy, with an emphasis on hypotheses, measurement and statistical analysis. At that time we tried to redress the balance in favour of qualitative methods. Increasingly there is acceptance that we need both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer some of the major questions of management research; consequently the third edition provided extensive treatment of quantitative methods to a more advanced level, and this fourth edition looks more at the logic for mixing methods within the same studies. The philosophical logic for choice of methods is covered in Chapter 2, and guidance on the use of qualitative and quantitative methods form the core of the book from Chapters 6 to 10.

A second feature is the ongoing debate about whether management research should lead to developments in academic theory, or whether it should lead to solutions of practical problems. The former, referred to as pure research, conjures the image of the white-coated scientist studying companies and their employees from a distance; the latter, known as applied research, suggests researchers in grey suits or overalls working

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with managers and employees to understand the strategies and practices. The arguments for and against each style of research and the practical consequences of their implementation are reviewed in Chapter 3.

The third feature is that management research is usually political. This is because most studies take place within formal organizations that have distinct boundaries which are controlled from within. Hence access to companies and employees depends on senior managers being convinced that the potential benefits will outweigh the costs. They may require a say in how the results will be used and disseminated, and there is always the danger of research data and results being used out of context to strengthen the case of one group against another. Researchers can also come under pressure to provide positive stories about the companies they study, often as a condition for being allowed further access. This means that the researcher should be prepared to confront ethical issues, and to navigate complex political relationships. In Chapter 4 we provide guidance on these matters.

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

There are many views about what constitutes `management'. Early civilizations demonstrated the ability to organize large scale activities that were efficient and effective: the Egyptians built the pyramids, the Chinese built the Great Wall and the Mesopotamians learned to irrigate the land to wall their cities. All these feats required a high degree of co-ordination, and although many had captive labour forces, there must have been sophisticated organization of their work. Formal records of production management techniques can be traced back to Mencius (372?289 BC). This Chinese philosopher dealt with models and systems, and pointed to the advantages of the division of labour, putting the concepts rediscovered over 2000 years later into perspective.

The modern use of the term `management' derives from the USA, with the requirement for business and entrepreneurial skills in the early twentieth century when American industries and railroads were developing very rapidly (Lawrence, 1986). From these beginnings, management was put forward as an important subject that could, and should, be taught in business schools. The establishment of business schools led to greater systematization of techniques and knowledge, although much of this was based on the principles that managers had distilled from their own experiences. Two of the dominant figures during this period were Taylor (1947), who developed rational systems to simplify the organization of work and link rewards directly to effort, and Fayol ([1916] 1950) who classified the main functions that managers should perform, such as: planning, organizing, co-ordinating and controlling. Although this classical view of management has much face validity, later researchers were to show that these functions did not resemble what managers actually did in their work (Mintzberg, 1973), nor did it provide an adequate account of how they might get the best results out of their subordinates.

An early critique of the classical view was the human relations school, which demonstrated that workers were not necessarily motivated by rational incentives, and that they were more likely to be productive if managers took personal interest in them (Roethlisberger and Dickson, 1939), or if they were given more responsibility in their jobs (Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 1959). Moreover these researchers suggested that a key role for managers

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was to get employees to accept changes and improvements in the workplace, and this would be accomplished most easily if they got them closely involved in decision-making processes (Coch and French, 1948). The focus of this work was therefore on the non-rational aspects of human behaviour in organizations.

During the 1960s a view was developed that the key to effective management was the ability to take rational decisions, even under conditions of uncertainty (Simon, 1959; Cyert and March, 1963). This decision theory emphasized the techniques that could be used to analyse the impact of external factors on corporate strategy, and ways of reaching adequate decisions under conditions of uncertainty, even if they were not completely ideal. Quantitative methods of analysis and model-building still dominate the curricula of many business schools, especially in the USA and France.

The classical view has also been attacked by researchers such as Stewart (1967), Mintzberg (1973), Kotter (1982) and Hales (1986) who, as we have indicated above, found almost no evidence of managers behaving as they are supposed to do. Instead of standing back and directing enterprises strategically, most managers, even top ones, spend most of their time talking to people; they work long hours at an unrelenting pace; their work patterns are varied, fragmented and reactive; and there is rarely any time for planning ahead and anticipating crises. Consequently, those who follow the work activity view argue there is little point in trying to get them to behave according to the classical text books. Rather, managers should be helped to deal with the realities of their jobs through managing their own time and becoming more skilled at leading and negotiating with others.

The second line of attack came from employers, who suggested that the emphasis on analytic techniques is of limited value, and may even be harmful to companies. They argued that it was more important for managers to be entrepreneurial, to exhibit leadership, to provide collective visions and to mould the culture and values of the organization (Porter and McKibbin, 1988). This line has given rise to a view of management as a set of competencies which represent the skills that need to be demonstrated in the course of effective managerial work (Boyatzis, 1982; Silver, 1991; Evers and Rush, 1996).

During the 1990s there was an increase in the literature based on critical management theory. This came from various sources, including postmodernism, which rejects the rationality that is so strongly embedded in the idea of management (Hassard and Parker, 1993), social constructionism, which emphasizes that the most important part of management involves making sense of ambiguous and complex situations through conversations and dialogue (Weick, 1995; Cunliffe, 2002b) and critical theory, which tends to see management as an agent in maintaining wider power differences in society (Fournier and Grey, 2000). This has been largely a theoretical critique, and to date there have been few attempts to articulate appropriate methodologies for conducting empirical research into management from a critical perspective, other than Alvesson and Deetz (2000).

The view that has developed over the last decade is based on process theory, the idea of management as a process. This emphasizes learning processes, the creation and management of organizational knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Scarbrough, 2008), and the importance of power and politics underlying knowledge legitimation (Lawrence et al., 2006; Buchanan and Bryman, 2007). At a wider level there are links to strategic perspectives including absorptive capacity (Todorova and Durisin, 2007), the focus on change leading

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TABLE 1.1 Seven perspectives on management

Views of Management Classical Human Relations

Decision Theory Work Activity Competencies

Critical Process

Period of Dominance 1910?1950 1940?1970

1950?1970 1970s 1980s

1990s 2000s

Key Features Functional activities Motivating people and managing change Optimizing decisions What managers do Skills required for effective performance Social construction and politics Learning and strategizing

Type of Theory Normative Normative

Analytic Descriptive Normative

Analytic Analytic and Normative

to dynamic capabilities (Winter, 2003), and the idea of strategy as practice (Jarzabkowski, Balogun and Seidl, 2007).

The seven views summarized in Table 1.1 are by no means the only views about what management is, or should be; but they are important historically. It should also be apparent that these include different types of theory. Some are normative, in the sense that they specify what or how managers should do their work; some are descriptive, because they try to describe what managers do in practice; and some are analytic, because they take a particular theoretical perspective which emphasizes some aspects of work, at the expense of others.

In the context of the present book, there are three main implications from the above review. First, although we have presented the story chronologically, all seven perspectives co-exist and significant research is still being conducted within each one of them. Second, the perspectives here are illustrative rather than exhaustive; there are plenty of other perspectives that lead to a wide range of questions for management and business research. Third, the research methods are likely to vary considerably according to the view that the researcher takes of the focus of enquiry. If she is working within the decision theory school, she will seek to manipulate quantitative data that can simulate processes or predict the best courses of action; if she adopts the work activity view of management, then she might choose observational methods that provide a structured description of managerial activities and roles within real organizations; and if she is interested in management as a socially constructed activity, then she is more likely to be interested in gathering stories, narratives and conversations about management.

A key point here is that there are many different ways of conducting research into management and business, and one of the main aims of the book is to provide guidance on the criteria for choosing different methods. Chapters 2 and 3, in particular, provide both frameworks and advice to aid the research design process.

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EXERCISE

1.1

Management perspectives and research foci

For each of the seven perspectives of management described above, summarize in one sentence the way that research is most likely to be conducted. Work in small groups. We have already provided hints above for three of them.

G Classical G Human relations G Decision theory G Work activity G Competencies G Critical G Process

SKILLS AND RESOURCES FOR MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

There are both tacit and explicit skills involved in research. Although it is possible to develop formal skills and knowledge through training, these tacit skills can only be fully acquired through trial and error, and through working with others who are able to pass on their skills. This is where the relationship with the tutor or supervisor is very important, and if one gets the chance to work on a project with experienced researchers, this can be very valuable.

In this section we have listed what we believe to be the important qualities of researchers. These are based partly on our own experiences and partly on external sources such as the ESRC guidelines for research methods training (ESRC, 2009). We have classified the resulting personal qualities according to whether they comprise knowledge, skills or personal attributes. This classification is based substantially on Burgoyne and Stuart's (1976) work into the attributes of effective managers, because we think there are close parallels between managing and researching. The skills and knowledge areas are progressively more specific to the conduct of research. These are `core' qualities, which are important in any form of research, and are listed in Exercise 1.2.

EXERCISE

1.2

Rating skills and qualities

Rate yourself on each quality using the following 1 to 4 scale:

4 Possess to a high degree 3 Possess to a moderate degree 2 Possess to a limited extent 1 Have virtually none of these

(Continued)

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(Continued)

Knowledge/awareness

1 Different assumptions

about the world F

2 Qualitative and

quantitative research

methods

F

3 Range of research

designs

F

4 Immediate subject of

study

F

5 Related subjects and

disciplines

F

6 Key networks and

contacts in chosen

research area F

Total

F

Skills and abilities

7 Planning, organizing

and managing one's

own time

F

8 Searching libraries

and online data

sources

F

9 Interviewing and

observation

F

10 Analysing and

interpreting data F

11 Arguing views orally

and in writing F

12 Gaining support and

co-operation from

others

F

Total

F

Personal qualities

13 Self-awareness F

14 Clarity of thought F

15 Sensitivity to events

and feelings

F

16 Emotional

resilience

F

17 Creativity

F

18 Learning from

experience

F

Total

F

If you have managed to rate yourself on the above qualities, then any ratings below 3 may be cause for concern (with the possible exception of item 5). What to do about any apparent deficiencies is, of course, a different matter. As a generalization: knowledge can be acquired by reading and talking, or by attending courses; skills can be acquired through practising them, either in a simulated or a real environment; and personal qualities can be acquired, with much difficulty, through life or educational experiences. This book certainly cannot offer everything. It provides a reasonable coverage of items 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10; and it touches on 6, 7, 12, 13 and 18. As for the rest, they may be acquired most easily by working with other researchers, in the form of apprenticeship suggested by Turner (1988).

Beyond a certain point, however, specialization begins to creep in. One form of specialization depends upon whether the researcher is following a primarily quantitative or qualitative path. Those following the quantitative path will need to have high levels of skill in areas such as survey design, sampling methods and statistical analysis; those following the qualitative path may need to be skilled at conducting in-depth interviews, making field notes, coding and interpreting transcripts, and so on. But there is a trend towards more mixing of subjects and methodologies as will be explained further in later chapters. Thus quantitative subjects may be tackled with qualitative methods, as in behavioural accounting; and qualitative subjects can be tackled with quantitative methods, such as frequency counts in textual analysis. In Chapters 6 to 10 we give extensive guidance on the choice and application of qualitative and quantitative methods.

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Support and supervision

Supervision is important both to provide technical guidance and as a structure for the research activity. On taught courses tutors will normally work with small groups of students. These can be organized either in action learning sets where the members will be looking at different topics but taking the opportunity both to support each other and to learn from their experiences, or as group project teams where members are working together on the same task. In the case of group projects there is the added challenge of having to work as a team, which requires division of roles and co-ordination. We discuss further some of the challenges of team working in Chapter 4.

For those working towards research-based degrees such as MPhil or PhD the relationship with the supervisor is crucial. In contrast to taught courses, there is usually an opportunity to negotiate about supervision, so it is worth knowing something about the success rate of a supervisor. Phillips (1984) studied the characteristics of successful supervisors. In addition to having relevant specialist knowledge, she identified practical aspects of the relationship: the better supervisors tend to set regular, and realistic, deadlines, although they do not interfere too much with the detail of the work. A responsive style seems most appropriate if the researcher is to be encouraged to become autonomous and independent, and it helps if the supervisor is prepared and willing to respond quite rapidly to any problems or to written work. Availability is very important, and for this reason the star researcher with a string of brilliant publications, but who is never available for consultations, may not necessarily be the best supervisor! Ideally there should be mutual commitment between the two parties, and this can sometimes be formalized as a supervision contract.

From our own experiences, the supervisor role can be quite tough, too, because students often move beyond the existing knowledge of the supervisor during the course of the project. In the case of a doctoral thesis this is almost an inevitable consequence of the requirement for originality in a PhD thesis. But also in postgraduate and undergraduate dissertations, which involve tackling broad-based problems, the work will often fall outside the specialist area of the supervisor who therefore has to rely on generic supervisory skills such as asking challenging questions or pointing the student to alternative sources of expertise. There is also a delicate balance to be struck between providing critical feedback that highlights weakness in a piece of work, and providing praise and encouragement in order to motivate the student.

In addition to tutors and supervisors it is worth considering alternative sources of emotional support. One of the best forms of support can come from colleagues, either through naturally occurring friendships, or through constructing a `support set' ? a group of four or five researchers committed to meeting regularly every few weeks to discuss their research progress and problems. It helps if the members of this set are working in related fields. The set may have a tutor (or set advisor) who can help with organization, and possibly provide specialist advice and support. The members of the set should be able to use it to `bounce' ideas off each other and, particularly for those who are researching part-time, to provide contact with others who may be going through similar experiences of doubt, confusion and disillusionment as themselves. Furthermore it is important to recognize the potential for support outside one's immediate institution. In particular, those wishing to develop academic careers will need to develop links within the broader community through attending conferences, and this is another area where the supervisor should be able to help.

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